Un divan à New York

A Couch in New York is a French/American/Belgium co-production with the innocence and humour of the romantic comedies of the 50's. Juliet Binoche shows the charm of a modern day Audrey Hepburn (with the same beautiful vulnerability portrayed by Hepburn in Funny Face and Breakfast at Tiffany's) while William Hurt plays the strong man role that used to be reserved for the likes of Humphrey Bogart, Fred Astaire or Gregory Peck. Using old tricks of mistaken identity and falling in love with a stranger, the dialogue is somehow saved from sounding corny and instead pays homage to the classic romantic comedies. A two tissue movie.

"Juliette Binoche cannot act", according to 'anonnymous' below. That is

a ridiculous assertion. As is to link this film with Kieslowski's

'Blue'. The problem with this movie is that neither Binoche nor Hurt are

given the material in the form of a good screenplay nor the direction to

make the film work. It seems to me that Akerman, who is an excellent

director, see La Captive, does not have a good enough command of English

to write a screenplay in the language.

The film, which starts out nicely quickly gets bogged down in the

psychoanalyitical. Endless "yes" and "mmmmm"s loose their amusement

value quickly. The romance angle is badly developed, just why has

Beatrice fallen for John Wire aka Henry? It doesnt work.

But Juliette Binoche can act. In fact in Europe she is regarded with

Isabelle Huppert to be the finest actress working today. But she can

only produce the goods when she is given the material and the careful

direction necessary. Go rent "Rendez-Vous", "The Unbearable Lightness of

Being", "Les Amants du Pont-Neuf", "Three Colours Blue", "Alice &

Martin", "The Widow of Saint-Pierre" and especially "Code Innconnu" and

try arguing otherwise.

I'm totally biased. Not objective or dispassionate. Juliette Binoche is my favorite actress of all time and every time I see her do anything on screen it's captivating. And William Hurt is one of my favorite actors. And the idea for the film was a very good one, however I think the french writer must have been resposible for most of the dialogue because a lot of it is nonsensical/out of place.

That said, nice little stories like these (not cheesy, just "light") are one of the resons why I love film. I think of Chacun Cherche son Chat for the epitome of what I'm talking about...I saw this with my gf (now wife) at the Kabuki in SF and we both had a great time.

I really tried hard to like it... but the film simply is boring. In spite of a charming Binoche and a promising story, Akerman fails to create any true atmosphere. She manages to create some funny scenes, but a couple of funny scenes do not make a comedy. Neither does the viewer care about Hurt and his psychoanalyst nor do we feel any warmth and human feelings in his beginning relationship with Binoche. No romantic sparks flying, at least I didn't see any. The dialogue is also not funny. This is the second film by Akerman I viewed, the other being The Captive, which also fails for the same reasons. Akerman may have delivered nuanced portraits of persons, especially women, in earlier films, but Un divan in New York lacks everything a comedy needs.

This mess needed a Lubitsch touch if it was ever going to succeed, and Akerman is no Lubitsch. Bad script, poor acting (although it is amusing to hear Hurt's French--what is behind this trend for American actors in French roles?; cf Malkovich in Temps Retrouve). When the best scene is a dog swimming in Central Park lake, you've got trouble.